The French Football Federation (FFF) has been accused of racial discrimination against Arabs and Africans in national youth training programs.

An investigation by the Mediapart website alleged that FFF has instructed football academies to recruit no more than 30 percent from Meghrebi African or Arab teenage players, France 24 reported.

France's national team manager Laurent Blanc has denied the allegations.

Sources from FFF revealed that the plan was presented in a meeting held by FFF's National Development Program (DTN) on November 8, 2010. It also revealed that the training center directors have been notified of the quota stipulations.

DTN head Francois Blaquart has allegedly argued for the planned discrimination alongside of Blanc, warning those present at the meeting that, “this must not be said.”

“The Spanish, they say 'we don't have a problem. We have no blacks,'" he said.

The proposal was apparently approved in early 2011 and instructions were then sent to academies, including the French National Football Institute (INF).

Former head of INF Andre Merelle said that the DTN had attempted to decrease the number of players of African descent in the early 1990s. “There was no official quota policy at the time," he said in an interview on a French sports radio station.

French Minister of Sport Chantal Jouanno has demanded FFF respond to the allegations “without delay,” saying that FFF needs to “very quickly shed light on the article's allegations.”